By Grace Maselli

A shout out to the Spring Hill, FL timebank! Spearheaded by member Dr. Andy LePage, the newly formed timebank in Hernando County’s Spring Hill is off to a rousing start. You can check out their new website right here. In typical Andy-style community organizing, he rallied the timebank troops from St. Peterburg’s and Tampa, luring peeps with food (including lots of desserts!) at the Sunday, October 14 potluck at his house in Spring Hill. Timebank experts B.J. Andryusky and Donna Terrence from St. Pete’s timebank, and Rita Cobbs and Nancy Wolf from TBT, hitched rides and headed northward to Andy’s to “hammer out a lot of ways the three timebanks can work together,” notes the host. “We here in Spring Hill are so fortunate to have B.J., Donna, Rita, and Nancy hold our hands as we venture around websites and learn to use the great strengths of our Spring Hill people,” he adds.

Yard Sale-aroonie

The Spring Hill timebank is hosting a yard sale. Can you say super fun? Here’s what the crew tells us about the details: “We have great items,” and lots of ’em, “especially Christmas ornaments, Christmas lights, and Christmas figurines. Bring your friends!” You read it here. Prepare to get good stuff.

Date	Saturday, November 3, 2018
Time	8 AM to 2 PM
Address	Diana’s house… 10506 Maderia Street Spring Hill, FL 34608 (A few blocks north of Spring Hill Drive; two blocks west of Mariner Boulevard)
Questions?	Call Andy at (727) 517-1148

 

 

 

 

 

By Grace Maselli

Whoopee, we did it! A friendly bunch of TBT members and friends kicked off the inaugural third-Tuesday-of-every-month TBT orientation and community gathering at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center (LEC). Our Third Tuesdays are part of TBT’s revitalization initiative to dispatch our efforts further into the community by way of a metaphoric human cannonball! (It should be noted, dear reader, that the first person to be sprung thusly from a cannon was 14-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter in 1877 at London’s Royal Aquarium.)

Time and Repartee

Natural light and shared food (Read: potluck!) for attendees who gathered on Tuesday, October 16 made the welcoming LEC space even more receptive to talk on timebanking, invoking broad discussions, including those in response to showings of two videos as part of the education and togetherness vibe. One video is from the timebank in Central Vermont where approximately 1,000 services are offered covering everything from iPhone tutoring and aromatherapy to weatherization, taro card interpretations, cake baking, and reading to persons who are sight impaired. A link to the second video shown is available further below in this post. The October 16 repartee extended to the idea of community connection that time-and-service exchanges can bring—the warm and fuzzy polar opposite of social isolation.

A Wedding—from Soup to Nuts

Demonstrating the power of timebanking, one Central Vermont member had an ENTIRE wedding brought to life (dress, venue, flowers, minister, music, and maybe some Italian Wedding Soup and nuts to nosh on)  thanks to our timebank cousin in the northeast! Now that’s something to write home about. TBT is thankful to LEC Executive Director Maureen Murphy who has generously opened LEC’s doors to us the third Tuesday of each month for orientations, ever-wonderful community potlucks and social events. LEC is “a private, non-profit organization whose mission is for students to fulfill their lifelong creative potential through the ageless engagement of the arts.” Their address is 9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241. You can also check out our Tampa Bay Timebank-LEC Flyer right here!

By Grace Maselli

Here’s a friendly reminder and re-post that our inaugural 2018 third-Tuesday-of-the-month TBT event is less  than a week away. We welcome each and every one of our members!

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Beginning Tuesday, October 16 from 6:30-8:30 PM, TBT will meet every third Tuesday of the month at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center (LEC), “a private, non-profit organization whose mission is for students to fulfill their lifelong creative potential through the ageless engagement of the arts.” Yay! The venerable organization has been in the business of art since 1980—38 years large! LEC Executive Director Maureen Murphy heads LEC, a long-time TBT organizational member that, under Maureen’s direction, has generously opened its doors to us the third Tuesday of each month for social events, orientations and ever-wonderful community potlucks.

Also in their own words: “The LEC is an innovative arts education center for adults, operating in North Tampa’s Forest Hills neighborhood since 1980. It is one of only a few centers across the country focused on redefining and reshaping retirement and the experience of aging. Its cultural arts program has received national and international recognition and serves as a model of a successful community-based organization, serving adults primarily 50+.” There’s a bundle of classes offered—more than 25 to choose from every week that interested TBT members can avail themselves of. Double yay! Among the gems: creative writing, drawing, pastels, oil/acrylics, watercolor, bead weaving, Tai Chi, yoga, Mahjong, and bridge. LEC’s address is 9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241.

By Grace Maselli

Let’s face it. Timebanking is a “community-building and community cohesion tool,” says Stephanie Rearick, former co-chair of  TimeBanks USA in her article, Time Banks: A Tool for Restorative Justice and Community Strength. The concept works by pooling resources, exchanging skill sets and time, and keeping people inter-connected. There’s power in numbers, after all. And resource-sharing as part of the timebank model has been engaged across the U.S. and internationally since founder Edgar Cahn’s brainchild was launched 30 or so years ago.

Give It a Rethink and Some Hope

More recently, HuffPost has turned its attention to the the capitalist system and its call for a “radical rethink” known as “This New World,” a web environment in support of public discourse and real news, not to mention the collective good. Should you, dear reader, elect to partake, here’s the message to anticipate: “Thanks for signing up for HuffPost’s This New World email! We’re here talking about this because the capitalist system is broken and needs a radical rethink. In the past it has created jobs, prosperity and happiness. But today we’re facing increased inequality, eroding prosperity for all but the richest and an environmental crisis. But there is hope. As well as looking at the failings of the current system, HuffPost’s ‘This New World’ series shines a spotlight on the people, projects and movements, striving to create a fairer economy.”

And in case you need ideas from the Halloween costumery, consider a social justice bent as you prepare for cobwebs and apple bobbing. A judge or a suffragette, perhaps? No matter the choice, ponder the long line of timebank members who came before us, the ones who took the radical rethink seriously, and still do. There are about 300 timebanks across the U.S. and more popping up as you read. For good measure, here’s a Timebanking 101 primer to share with your friends.

 

By Grace Maselli

We’re all about sharing the love here at TBT. Our neighbor 23.7 miles south of downtown Tampa by way of I-275 (as the crow flies not exactly in a straight line, but rather veers in a westerly arc) is the St. Petersburg Time Bank—”St. Pete” for short. Our enduring neighbor’s mission: “To support the growth of a time-based community that teaches its members to exchange goods and services without the use of cash.” Bravo, timebankers extraordinaire! To date, the St. Pete Time Bank has exchanged 5,975 ½ hours, doing everything from errands and shopping to workshops and community service. Get the skinny on their upcoming Halloween potluck. And for more year-round information, give them a jingle at 727-835-TIME (8463).

 

 

 

 

By Grace Maselli

 

Be nimble, be curious. Be an omnivorous learner and connect to your community. This is what timebanking can teach us about the the wonders, vagaries and, yes, even the mysteries of life—because you never know what’s going to get lobbed in your quadrant of the court. Or someone else’s, beckoning you to offer a helping hand that gives someone a sense of oomph, connection, a warm feeling in the belly. Or when it’s time to reach out to your fellow timebankers for a reciprocal helping hand-a-roonie.

Why Be Nimble?

Because life is about constant change. Dear reader, you’ve heard it before, but if honesty is indeed the best policy, there’s a resistance to change among our species that can’t be ignored. Timebanking is the antidote to resistance because it begs for outreach and responsiveness to fellow timebankers. It calls for action. Clarity. Awareness of change and an agile approach to address tasks at hand. Whether that means weeding a garden or tooling around in a car with a companion, as one TBT timebanker offers in her profile. Share errands, gas, and a good talk.

Curiosity is happily reinforced by timebanking. You never know who you’ll meet right in your own weed-laden backyard. It’s this very spirit of community and inquiry that spurred timebank founder Edgar Cahn. Edgar’s timebank “invention” speaks directly to the concepts of change and need, resource sharing, and combining energy for optimal, super-charged effect.

Be omnivorous and inquiverous (the latter, this writer’s neologism blending inquisitiveness with a veracious appetite for sharing your best skills with the community.) Be open as a timebanker. Changes in relationships, jobs, geo locations, appetites, death of a companion. You name it, and life brings it into the present moment. Either accept that change is implicit in this human experience, or dig in and resist. Mr. Cahn is about accepting life and joining together.

Now and again, we all need a helping hand (sometimes, even a prosthetic one) to make another person’s life easier, to instill a sense of agency and competency.  It’s all tied to timebanking. So which member might be the one to help you over the hump?

By Grace Maselli

TBT’s hatching another plan for community involvement and conversation about timebanking. Show & Tell, straight from the pantheon of classroom classics. But for big kids. Because no matter your age, connecting, communicating, sharing ideas and objects—can pique curiosity, give license to express, and open doors to audience interests. It can demonstrate different ways of thinking and promote good listening skills! Plus, it’s just plain old fun to talk about your Aunt Edna’s heirloom tomato seeds, show off a piece of the Berlin Wall or a replica of Elvis’s 1972 Classic Burning Love suit, display kinetic craft projects made out of toilet paper rolls, or demonstrate how your fingers fly across the strings on a balalaika. Stay tuned while we manifest a time and place in the next four to six weeks. If you’re game to host, give us a shout out at info@tampabaytime.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Grace Maselli

Yesterday’s TBT poetry potluck served up food for the soul. Deep sharing—recitation and delighted listening, opened the door to our collective human experience. Inspired readings of classics ranged from “The Night Before Christmas,” first published anonymously in 1823 (and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore), to “On Children” by Kahlil Gibran. Some guests read from their own uniquely authored inventions. We heard about daughters’ enduring  love for their mommas, a Philippine mother’s playful poem for her children about the stages of the moon, about a time and culture where families sit together, outside, sans TV, and take in the natural world. Spoken words from the annals of American poetess Edna St. Vincent Millay, and lyric constructions on the art of painting a picture, also flowed into the room. We were deeply moved by a widow’s enduring love for her life partner and overjoyed by the poetic expression of 80-year-olds taking the plunge, getting hitched, with love and humor fearlessly on their minds. We listened with all 34 of our collective ears to Brian Bilston’s poem, “Refugees” read forward and backward by a husband-and-wife duo, and marveled at its inventiveness and power to stir compassion and insight into our common humanity. Beyond the potstickers and pepperoni, our TBT community truly came together, hung out, hung back. We got caught up, carried away, and charmed by the verse and rhyme that binds us in ordinary                                                                           and beautiful life moments.

 

By Grace Maselli

Here’s a reminder for you, dear reader, of our upcoming September 30 event: Magical potlucks galore! But this time, with a literary twist. Member guests and guests of members are invited to share one or two poems each in the safe space of a living room. Either something guests have penned in the dark of night or the bright light of day, or a recitation (from memory OR a sheet of paper), an homage, to their faves from the poetic pantheon. Think Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Dr. Suess and his perhaps lesser-known “Greatheart and the  Brain Drain”. The Beats. To keep it synced, our shared potluck foods will follow a time-honored literary technique, alliteration, or “the conspicuous repetition of identical initial consonant sounds… ” You dig? That means our shared poetry foods may include potstickers, pierogies, pumpkin pie, pasta, parsnips, or a treasured family recipe from your Uncle Peter. Join us for the mini recital, fun, and foodery! Here’s the skinny: Time: Sunday, September 30, 3-6 PM ¦ Location: 2128 Park Crescent Drive, Land O Lakes, FL 34639  ¦ Questions: 215.834.4567 (Yes, it’s a local event despite the 215 prefix. 🙂 )